Unlocking Chinese Culture

From the serious to the sublime, Westerners tend to look at China and see nothing but a wall — the great one, which stretches thousands of miles east to west, and is a huge draw for tourists.

Or they hear "China," and they remember the iconic photo of the young man standing in front of a line of tanks during the '89 Tiananmen Square protests.

But that's like looking at the United States and thinking only "Guantánamo" or "hot dogs." What about everything else? China's culture? History? Amazing economic turn-around? Human rights violations?

What follows is a quick view of China, which is hosting the 2008 Summer Olympics beginning Aug. 8. This is the first in a series of stories in the coming days about China and its culture.

Let's start with the basics:

What Time Is It In China?

Beijing, the host city for the 2008 Summer Olympics and the capital of the People's Republic of China, is 12 hours ahead of Historically, the country was divided into five time zones, but when the Communist Party took over in 1949, things got complicated. Why? Politics, mostly. The government opted for one time zone across China's vast expanse. Officially, that's Coordinated Universal Time, similar to Greenwich Mean Time (which is four hours later than New England), plus eight hours.

Confused yet?

What's With All The Red?

Similar to green in America, the color red is considered good luck in China. Money comes in red envelopes, and stock-market gains are printed in red (no fear of red ink there). The origin of red's luck isn't clear, but it may come from an ancient Chinese monster that terrorized villagers until they figured out the beast feared three things: fire, noise and the color red. When villagers gathered to scare the thing away, a love for red was born.

Enforced Birth Control

China has just over 1.3 billion people (and roughly 451 million cellphones). It is the world's most populous country, home to about 20 percent of the world's population.

The country's one-child policy — which limits most couples to one offspring — was implemented as a temporary rule in 1979 and is thought to have slowed population growth considerably. The rule is applied most strictly among urban-dwelling Chinese.

Many criticize the draconian nature of the law and its spotty implementation, and after the devastating May earthquake in Chengdu, the government ruled that families who'd lost a child, or had one severely injured, would be allowed to have another.

Year Of The Rat

The twelve animals in the Chinese zodiac are the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and pig. People born in months represented by these animals are thought to possess some of the mascot's characteristics. For example, 2008 (1996, 1984, and other years counting backward by 12) is the year of the rat. People born in the year of the rat are charming to the extreme, goal-oriented and prone to perfectionism.

A Yuan Saved, Etc.

The basic monetary unit is the yuan, Chinese for "round," as in coin. As of press time, one yuan equaled about 15 cents.

From Ice Cream To Oil

The compass, paper, gunpowder and printing are considered some of ancient China's major contributions to the world.

We would include ice cream in that list. China is credited with first mixing the milk concoction we love best before 1,000 CE (Common Era).

As the economy has improved, the Chinese taste for their own inventions have increased, according to market reports. Add to that the horse collar, all manner of weapons, the bristle toothbrush — and, back to the ice cream theme, the crank handle.

For what it's worth, American ice-cream and fair-trade gurus Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield (whose business is now owned by the multinational Unilever) have protested China's involvement in Sudan, where it is heavily invested in that troubled country's oil industry.

Religous Repression

Though the country is officially atheist, there are Chinese Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, and Taoists. Overall, religion in China is family-oriented and more fluid than in America.

In recent times, tales of human-rights abuse have revolved around practitioners of Falun Gong, a spiritual practice that emerged in the '90s. According to 2005 testimony by a U.S. Department of State official, "Some of the harshest treatment meted out by China's criminal and administrative justice has been directed against practitioners of Falun Gong." Even belief — unexpressed publicly, according to the July 2005 testimony of a state department official — is sufficient grounds for imprisonment, discrimination in employment as well as "mandatory anti-Falun Gong study sessions."

China vs. Tibet

And while we're on the topic: Ah, Tibet, roof of the world. A cental accusation about China's human-rights abuses lies in its occupation of the beleaguered Tibet. That small region, whose sovereign history dates back 2,000 years, was invaded by China in 1949. China maintains that Tibet is actually a part of its country. The Dalai Lama, a Tibetan leader, left Tibet in 1959; he remains in exile. Multiple stories of persecution — particularly of Buddhist monks and practitioners — abound. For more information, see www.savetibet.org.

Conquering Qomolangma

To the Chinese, Mount Everest is Mount Qomolangma, (pronounced CHEW-muh-LONG-muh), which, at 29,000-plus feet, is the highest point in the world. The British renamed it in the 1860s after a fellow countryman, a government official formerly based in India.

George Everest actually protested having the mountain named for him, to no avail. A dedicated geographer, Everest felt place names should reflect local culture. A move is afoot to re-introduce Westerners to the original name, recorded centuries ago. More information is at www.mountq.org.

Last Shall Be First

In China, a person's family name comes first, followed by the first name. There is no middle name. The three most popular Chinese family names are Li, Zhang and Wang. Surnames are passed down through the father's family, as generally happens in the United States.

Old Culture, Young Country

Though its culture is eons older, China's citizenry is younger than America's. The median age among Chinese women is 34.2 (38.1 in the U.S.); among Chinese men, it's 33.1 (35.4 in the U.S.). Life expectancy is 73.18 years in China, compared with 78.14 years in the U.S.